To Post or Not To Post: Social Media Strategies for Residency Recruitment

Background and/or Objectives: Social media (SM) has become an increasingly important aspect of the residency recruitment process, especially in the era of virtual interviews. Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) programs with Twitter accounts had more applications in the 2020-2021 application cycle. SM's ever-changing norms and engagement types make it a difficult, moving target for residency programs to connect with prospective residents effectively and efficiently.

Design: Surveys were sent to all PM&R residency program coordinators (PCs) and program directors (PDs) and were posted on SM to recruit current residents and applicants. Surveys were also sent to PCs and programs' Instagram inbox regarding their SM logistics. Two years of programs' instagram posts were categorized by content which were then correlated with two match cycles of total applications per program.

Setting : Online

Participants : Residents/applicants: 70 in pilot, 212 in follow-up. SM Leadership: 63; PDs: 27; Programs' SM pages: 100

Interventions: Not applicable

Main Outcome Measures: Content valued by residents/applicants and program leadership, subjectively(survey responses) and objectively(total applications and SM content analysis, respectively)

Results: Surveyed applicants commonly used SM to evaluate programs(75%) and most often used Instagram(94%). Most applicants report SM influenced their rank list(75%); most PDs(97%) and program SM leadership (97%) thought SM influenced applicants' rank lists. Programs' instagram post and highlight totals were positively correlated with total applicants in the 2024 Match (r=0.26, p=0.01 and r=0.49, p=0.0007). Potential fit(67%), city culture(66%), and resident happiness(66%) were evaluated by applicants on SM. Programs wanted to showcase resident happiness(81%), curriculum(75%), and city culture(70%). Number of posts were positively correlated with total Match 2024 applicants for resident spotlights(21.3,p=0.003), conferences/research(7.2,p=0.01), social events outside of work(8.7,p=0.015) post-types, but not average didactics posts (9.5,p=0.19).

Conclusions: Social media is a valuable tool in the residency recruitment process. Applicants value interaction and in-depth, detailed posts showing current resident life. Programs most often share curriculum-focused, hospital-centric content, despite wanting to showcase resident happiness and city culture.